We toured with Rob Halford in 2000. That was pretty awesome, probably because he's not only an influence on me, but on the metal scene. In 1988 we toured with Motorhead, and that was top of the line. I always remember that as a very special tour.
Is there anywhere you haven't toured that you'd like to play?
We've never been to Australia. I'd like to see that. We have been to the Middle East. We did some shows in Turkey once, which was awesome. We've also played Eastern Europe: the Czech Republic, the Baltic States, Hungary, Russia. Where there's touring we usually go. Probably Australia is the only one we haven't hit that gets regular tours. But it's kinda hard, because there's so much distance that to get the band there becomes unaffordable for the promoters.
Do you notice different types of fan reaction from country to country, or is it pretty universal?
Naturally you notice a huge difference in culture when you talk to people who like the band in Tokyo as opposed to New York. But when the band starts it becomes very much the same when you're looking into the audience. People may look different, but the excitement is at a fever pitch at that point.
Metal music has been splintered into dozens of sub-genres. Do you put Overkill into any of those, or do you just consider yourself a metal band?
People put that on it. I don't think there is a band out there that really puts it on it, except in some cases a black metal band has got certain characteristics that make them so. In our case we've always been just a metal band. It always appears like a thrash metal band when you see us live. I don't know if Killbox 13 is a thrash record, but I know it's an Overkill record, that's for sure. And that's an identifiable subgenre. No matter what goes on around us, I think you always know it's us. I'd rather lean on that than anything else. But I don't really care if they say thrash. It doesn't really matter to me.
Overkill has been around since 1982. To what do you attribute your longevity?
D.D. owes me money. That's why I keep him around. (Loud laughter). I think we have the same standard we had back then. We have the love of the music the same we did back then, the same value. I think we eliminated popularity from the equation back somewhere around 1990, and it gave us new legs. Somewhere you say I just don't give a shit what people think of me. Quite simply, it is what it is. You like it or you don't, and that really takes a lot of the pressure off everything. I think when you see a band change dramatically, it's based on popularity. They feel that they're on the wrong road and they better get on the right road or they're not going to get what they want. And what they want is popularity.
 |
 |
